Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, after years of battles with teachers’ and police unions, is seeking to survive the first round of voting Tuesday in her bid for a second term.
Lightfoot is facing eight challengers in the race. Since no candidate is expected to top the 50% necessary to avoid a runoff, the candidates are battling for a top-two finish to advance to an April 4 runoff.
Four contenders have emerged at the top of the race: Lightfoot, the incumbent; progressive Rep. Jesús “Chuy” Garcia; Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson; and Paul Vallas, who was head of schools in Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans.
Vallas has the backing of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police. Johnson, meanwhile, is endorsed by the Chicago Teachers’ Union, a powerful organization that has repeatedly clashed with Lightfoot – including battles in 2019 over teachers’ pay and class sizes that led to an 11-day strike, and last year as Lightfoot pushed teachers to return to classrooms despite rising Covid-19 cases.
Lightfoot, the first Black woman and first out gay person to serve as mayor in a major city often pilloried by conservatives in national debates over violence and gun control, rose to prominence as a pugnacious reformer promising a break from the corruption and clubby governance that had long marked Chicago politics.
But years of contentious brawls over policing, teacher pay, Covid-19 public safety policies, as well as mounting complaints about long waits in Chicago’s public transit system, have left Lightfoot vulnerable, raising the stunning prospect of the Second City ousting its incumbent mayor in the first round of voting.
The race has largely revolved around crime, as concerns about public safety have rattled Chicago.
Violence in the city spiked in 2020 and 2021. And though shootings and murders have decreased since then,…
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